Wife-Wooing by John Updike

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Wife-Wooing by John Updike

"We eat meat, meat I wrested warm from the raw hands of the hamburger girl from the diner a mile away, a ferocious place, slick with grease, sleep with chrome; young predators snarling dirty jokes menaced me, old men reached for me with coffee-dark paws; I wielded my wallet and won my way back."

This passage works to elevate an ordinary trip to the diner into a battle against the wilderness. The physical footing of the story, setting up the scene sets us over the characters shoulder. The reader is  watching as he walks into this diner, between booths and bar stool as regular patrons glare and grimace at him. But the imagery changes that scene, the old men look more like grizzly bears with their "coffee-dark paws". "Young predators snarling" are no longer young men in booths but wolf like creatures watching their prey. It gives the reader the impression that the character is in danger with wild animals stalking his every move. This visual overload creates a quick, but vivid scene of a rather dull occurrence. It shows us the exaggeration the speaker feels by performing this task, as if he has done something great by fighting through these creatures for his hamburgers to provide for his family. This is how he sees it.